Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)

Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)

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Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 animated feature produced by Walt Disney and originally released to theatres on January 29, 1959, by Buena Vista Distribution. The sixteenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, it was the last animated feature produced by Walt Disney to be based upon a fairy tale (after his death, the studio returned to the genre with 1989's The Little Mermaid).

The film was directed by Les Clark, Eric Larson, and Wolfgang Reitherman, under the supervision of Clyde Geronimi. The film was based on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault, with additional story work by Joe Rinaldi, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright, and Milt Banta. The film's musical score and songs, featuring the work of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, are inspired from the 1890 Sleeping Beauty ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Sleeping Beauty was the first animated feature to be photographed in the Technirama widescreen process. The film was presented in Super Technirama 70 and 6-channel stereophonic sound in first-run engagements. Only one other animated film, Disney's The Black Cauldron, was shot in Technirama.

Princess Aurora, the film's titular character, appears for less than eighteen minutes in the film (excluding the time she appears as an infant at the beginning).

Plot synopsis

Princess Aurora is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn "because she fills her father and mother's lives with sunshine." While still an infant, she is betrothed to the also-young Prince Phillip, son and heir to King Hubert's throne. At her christening, the good fairies Flora (dressed in red/pink), Merryweather (in blue), and Fauna (in green) arrive to bless her. Flora gives her the gift of beauty, which is described in a song as "gold of sunshine in her hair" and "lips that shame the red, red rose." Fauna gives her the gift of song. At this point, Maleficent, the film's villain and Mistress of All Evil, appears on the scene. Claiming to be upset at not being invited to Aurora's christening ceremony, she curses the princess to die when she touches a spinning wheel's spindle before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday. Fortunately, Merryweather has not yet blessed Aurora, so she uses her blessing to alter Maleficent's curse: Aurora will not die when she touches the spinning wheel, instead, she will fall asleep until she is awakened by true love's kiss. In addition, Aurora's father, King Stefan, orders all spinning wheels in the kingdom burned, but knowing Maleficent is extremely powerful and will stop at nothing to see her curse fulfilled, the three good fairies take Aurora to live with them in the woods, where they can keep her safe from any harm until she turns sixteen and the curse is made void. To fully protect her, they even change her name to Briar-Rose.

Aurora grows into a very beautiful young woman with long golden yellow hair, rose-colored lips, lilac-colored eyes, and a marvelous singing voice, 'with golden sunshine in her hair and lips that shame the red, red rose'. She, although very beautiful and sweet, does not care for her appearance but she hopes that someday "her song will go winging" to a handsome man. She is raised in a cottage in the forest by the three fairies, who she believes are her aunts. Meanwhile, the evil creatures employed by Maleficent admit to their mistress that they have not been able to find the princess, despite looking in every cradle they could find. Realizing that they have been looking for a baby for 16 years, Maleficent angrily zaps the "FOOLS!", "IDIOTS!", and "IMBECILES!" with her staff and sends her "last hope," her pet raven Diablo, to look for Aurora. On the day of her sixteenth birthday, the three fairies choose to use magic to make Rose a gown and a cake. As Flora and Merryweather fight it out to have the dress their signature color, Maleficent's raven flies over the forest and spots the magical glitter fluttering in the air and reports back to Maleficent. While out picking berries, Aurora sings to entertain her animal friends; her angelic voice gains the attention of Prince Phillip, who has grown into a handsome young man and is out riding his horse in the woods. When they meet, they instantly fall in love. Realizing that she has to return home, Aurora flees from Phillip without ever learning his name. Despite promising to meet him again, she is unable to return, as her "aunts" choose that time to reveal the truth of her birth to her and to tell her that she is betrothed to a prince named Phillip.

They leave the woods, and Aurora makes it into the palace. Unfortunately, Maleficent uses her magic to lure Aurora away from her chambers up into the tallest tower of the palace, where a spinning wheel awaits her. Fascinated by the wheel, she touches the spindle, pricking her finger. As had been foretold by the curse, Aurora is put under a sleeping spell. The good fairies place Aurora on a bed with a red rose in her hand, and cause a deep sleep to fall over the entire kingdom "until Rose awakens." While doing so, they realize, from King Hubert trying to tell King Stefan that his son is in love with a peasant-girl, that the young man Aurora had fallen in love with is Prince Phillip. Unfortunately, he has been bound, gagged, and captured by Maleficent and imprisoned in her castle to prevent him from kissing Aurora and waking her up. The three good fairies sneak into Maleficent's domain, The Forbidden Mountains, aid the prince in escaping and explain to him the story of Maleficent's curse. Armed with the magical Sword of Truth and The Shield of Virtue, Phillip battles Maleficent when the sorceress turns herself into a gigantic fire-breathing dragon. The sword, blessed by the fairies' magic, is plunged into the dragon's heart, killing her. Phillip climbs to Aurora's chamber, and removes the curse with a kiss. As the film ends, the prince and princess both happily learn that their betrothed and their beloved are one and the same. They dance a waltz while Merryweather and Flora squabble over the color of Aurora's dress once again.

Production

Overview and art direction

Sleeping Beauty spent nearly the entire decade of the 1950s in production: the story work began in 1951, voices were recorded in 1952, animation production took from 1953 until 1958, and the stereophonic musical score, partially based on Tchaikovsky's ballet of the same name, was recorded in 1957. The film holds a notable position in Disney animation as the last Disney feature to use hand-inked cels. Beginning with the next feature, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Disney would move to the use of xerography to transfer animators' drawings from paper to celluloid. Its art, which Walt Disney wanted to look like a living illustration and which was inspired by medieval art, was not in the typical Disney style. Because the Disney studio had already made two features based on fairy tales, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella, Walt Disney wanted this film to stand out from its predecessors by choosing a different visual style. The movie eschewed the soft, rounded look of earlier Disney features for a more stylized one. Since Super Technirama 70 was used, it also meant the backgrounds could contain more detailed and complex artwork than ever used in an animated movie before.

Disney artist Eyvind Earle was the film's production designer, and Disney gave him a significant amount of freedom in designing the settings and selecting colors for the film. Earle also painted the majority of the backgrounds himself. The elaborate paintings usually took seven to ten days to paint; by contrast, a typical animation background took only one workday to complete. Disney's decision to give Earle so much artistic freedom was not popular among the Disney animators, who had until Sleeping Beauty exercised some influence over the style of their characters and settings.

Characters and story development

The name of the beautiful Sleeping Beauty is "Princess Aurora" (Latin for "dawn"), in this film, as it was in the original Tchaikovsky ballet; this name occurred in Perrault's version, not as the princess's name, but as her daughter's.^[1] In hiding, she is called Briar Rose, the name of the princess in the Brothers Grimm variant.^[2] The prince was given the only princely name familiar to Americans in the 1950s: "Prince Phillip," named after Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The dark fairy was aptly named Maleficent (which means "Evil-doer").

Walt Disney had suggested that all three good fairies should look alike, but veteran animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston objected, saying that three identical fairies would not be exciting. Additionally, the idea originally included seven fairies instead of three, as there are seven fairies in the story's main reference, Perrault's version. In determining Maleficent's design, standard depictions of witches and hags were dismissed as animator Marc Davis opted for a more elegant look centered around the appearance of flames, ultimately crowning the villain with "the horns of the devil."

Several story points for this film came from discarded ideas for Disney's previous fairy tale involving a sleeping heroine: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They include Maleficent's capture of the Prince, as well as her mocking him and the Prince's daring escape from her castle. Disney discarded these ideas from Snow White because his artists were not able to draw a human male believably enough at the time. Also discarded from Snow White but used in this film were the ideas of the dance with the makeshift prince, and the fantasy sequence of the prince and princess dancing in the clouds, which was also considered but dropped from Cinderella.

Live-action reference footage

Before animation production began, every shot in the film was done in a live-action reference version, with live actors in costume serving as models for the animators. The role of Prince Phillip was modeled by Ed Kemmer, who had played Commander Buzz Corry on television's Space Patrol five years before Sleeping Beauty was released. For the final battle sequence, Kemmer was photographed on a wooden buck. Among the actresses who performed in reference footage for this film were Spring Byington, Frances Bavier, and Helene Stanley.

Helene Stanley was the live action reference for Princess Aurora. The only known surviving footage of Stanley as Aurora's live-action reference is a clip from the television program Disneyland, which consists of the artists sketching her dancing with the woodland animals. It was not the first or last time Stanley worked for Disney; she also provided live-action references for Cinderella and Anita from One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and she also portrayed Polly Crockett for the TV series Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. An episode of The Mickey Mouse Club television series features Stanley re-enacting scenes from the Sleeping Beauty for the Mousketeers to watch (a clip from this episode is included as a special feature on the Cinderella Platinum Edition DVD).

All the live actors' performances were screened for the animators' reference as Walt Disney insisted that much of Sleeping Beauty's character animation be as close to live-action as possible.

Release and later history

Theatrical release

Disney's distribution arm, Buena Vista Distribution, originally released Sleeping Beauty to theaters in both standard 35mm prints and large-format 70mm prints. The Super Technirama 70 prints were equipped with six-track stereophonic sound; some CinemaScope-compatible 35mm Technirama prints were released in four-track stereo, and others had monaural soundtracks.

During its original release, Sleeping Beauty returned only half the invested sum of $6,000,000, nearly bankrupting the Disney studio. It was mainly criticized as being slowly paced and having little character development (which is a debatable point, since this was a differently formulated film than other classic Disney fare). Since then, the film has gained a following and is today hailed as one of the best animated features ever made, thanks to its stylized designs by painter Eyvind Earle who also was the art director for the movie, its lush music score and its large-format widescreen and stereophonic sound presentation.

The film was re-released theatrically in 1970, 1979 (in 70mm 6 channel stereo, as well as in 35 mm stereo and mono),1986, 1993, and will have a limited release in 2008. When adjusted for ticket price inflation, the domestic total gross comes out to $478.22 million, placing it in the top 30 of adjusted films. ^[3]

Home video release

Sleeping Beauty was released on both VHS and Laserdisc in 1986 in the Classics collection, becoming the first Disney Classics video to be digitally processed in Hi-Fi stereo. The film underwent an digital restoration in 1997, and that version was released to both VHS and Laserdisc again as part of the Masterpiece Collection. In 2003, the restored Sleeping Beauty was released to DVD in a 2-disc "Special Edition" which included both a widescreen version (formatted at 2.35:1) and a pan and scan version as well.

A 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition release of Sleeping Beauty, as a 2-disc DVD & Blu-ray Disc, was released on October 7, 2008, making Sleeping Beauty the first entry in the Platinum Edition line to be released in high definition video. This release is based upon a new 2007 restoration of Sleeping Beauty from the original Technicolor negatives (intrapositives several generations removed from the original negative were used for other home video releases). The new restoration features the film in its full negative aspect ratio of 2.55:1, wider than both the prints shown at the film's original limited Technirama engagements in 2.20:1 and the CinemaScope-compatible reduction prints for general release at 2.35:1. The Blu-ray set features BD-Live, an online feature, and the extras include a virtual castle and multi-player games.^[4]^[5] The Blu-Ray release also include a standard-definition DVD of the film in addition to the two Blu-Ray discs.

Other appearances

Aurora is one of the seven Princesses of Heart in the popular Square Enix game Kingdom Hearts (although her appearances are brief), and Maleficent is a villain in all three Kingdom Hearts games, and as a brief ally at the third game's climax. The good fairies appear in Kingdom Hearts II, giving Sora new clothes. The upcoming game for the PSP, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, will feature a world based on the movie, Enchanted Dominion.

Princess Aurora, Prince Phillip, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather were featured as guests in Disney's House of Mouse, and Maleficent was one of the villains in Mickey's House of Villains'. Maleficent's goons appear in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The first all-new story featuring the characters from the movie appeared in Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, the first volume of collection of the Disney Princesses. It was released on September 4, 2007. Various characters from the film also appear in the board game of the same name.

Sleeping Beauty release history

January 29, 1959 (original release)
May 18, 1966 (New Orleans premiere)
June 10, 1970
September 28, 1979
March 7, 1986
Spring 1993
September 16, 1997
September 9, 2003 (Special Edition DVD)
October 7, 2008 (Platinum Edition DVD)

Worldwide release dates

Characters

A sleeping Princess Aurora and the three good fairies, Fauna, Merryweather, and Flora, from left to right.

Flora, Merryweather, and Fauna (The Three Good Fairies), voiced by Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy , and Barbara Jo Allen respectively.
Maleficent, voiced by Eleanor Audley.
Princess Aurora/Briar Rose, voiced by Mary Costa.
Prince Phillip, voiced by Bill Shirley.
King Stefan, voiced by Taylor Holmes.
King Hubert, voiced by Bill Thompson.
The Narrator, voiced by Marvin Miller.
Maleficent's Goons, voiced by Candy Candido, Pinto Colvig, and Bob Amsberry.
The Owl, voiced by Dallas McKennon.

Characters who are unvoiced include the lackey and Maleficent's raven, Diablo. The actress who voiced King Stefan's queen is unknown.

Directing Animators

Milt Kahl (Prince Phillip)
Frank Thomas (Flora, Fauna, Merryweather with Oille Johnston)
Ollie Johnston (Flora, Fauna, Merryweather with Frank Thomas)
Marc Davis (Aurora, Maleficent)
John Lounsbery (King Stefan, King Hubert)

Awards and nominations

Nominated

Academy Awardshttp://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1215145841468
- Best Scoring of a Musical Picture (George Bruns) (Lost against Porgy and Bess)

Grammy Awards
- Best Soundtrack Album, Original Cast - Motion Picture or Television

Media and Merchandise

Theme Parks

Sleeping Beauty cast member at Walt Disney World

Sleeping Beauty was made while Walt Disney was building Disneyland (hence the four year production time). To help promote the film, Imagineers named the park's icon "Sleeping Beauty Castle"(it was originally to be Snow White's).

Several years later an indoor walk-through section was added to the castle, where guests could walk through dioramas of scenes from the film. It closed shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, supposedly because the dark, unmonitored corridors were a risk. Currently, this space is undergoing extensive refurbishment and will reopen to Guests in late 2008. Accommodations are being made for Guests with disabilities, who were previously unable to experience the attraction due to the number of stairs.

Le Ch�teau de la Belle au Bois Dormant at Disneyland Paris is a variant of Sleeping Beauty Castle. The version found at Disneyland Paris is much more reminiscent of the film's artistic direction.

Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005, also with a Sleeping Beauty Castle, with a fairly-similar design to Disneyland's.

Princess Aurora (and, to a lesser extent, Prince Phillip, the three good fairies, and Maleficent) makes regular appearances in the parks and parades.

In Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland Paris, a sleeping dragon, designed to look like Maleficent's dragon form, is found in the lower level dungeon.

Video Games

Princess Aurora appears in the game Kingdom Hearts as one of the Princesses of Heart^[6].

Soundtrack listing

Main Title/[Once Upon a Dream]/Prologue
Hail to the Princess Aurora
The Gifts of Beauty and Song/Maleficent Appears/True Love Conquers All
The Burning of the Spinning Wheels/The Fairies' Plan
Maleficent's Frustration
A Cottage in the Woods
Do You Hear That?/I Wonder
An Unusual Prince/Once Upon a Dream
Magical House Cleaning/Blue or Pink
A Secret Revealed
Skumps (Drinking Song)/The Royal Argument
Prince Phillip Arrives/How to Tell Stefan
Aurora's Return/Maleficent's Evil Spell
Poor Aurora/Sleeping Beauty
Forbidden Mountain
A Fairy Tale Come True
Battle with the Forces of Evil
Awakening
Finale

On Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, this includes Once Upon a Dream on the green disc and I Wonder on the purple disc. And on Disney's Greatest Hits, this also includes Once Upon a Dream on the blue disc.

No Secrets performed a cover version of "Once Upon A Dream" on the album Disneymania 2, which appears as a music video on the 2003 DVD. More recently, Emily Osment sang a remake of "Once Upon A Dream", released on the Disney Channel on September 12, 2008, and included on the Platinum Edition DVD and Blu-ray.